Newport Harbor's Luca Cupido shoots and scores against Corona del Mar during boys water polo Saturday at Newport Harbor. He'll lead the Sailors into Sunset league play Wednesday against Los Alamitos. MIKE FERNANDEZ, FOR THE REGISTER

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Corona del Mar's Matthew Sherburne shoots and scores against Newport Harbor's Clay Davison and gaolie Massimo Navaretta during boys water polo Saturday at Newport Harbor, but it was the Sailors who came out on top to improve to 11-3. MIKE FERNANDEZ, FOR THE REGISTER

Robert Lynn has prefaced many of his responses this year with phrases like “we’re still making mistakes,” “we need to be patient” and “we’re still very young.”

But after Saturday’s 10-8 victory in the Battle of the Bay over CdM, the Newport Harbor water polo coach was smiling and extolling the virtues of his squad including an offensive attack that became more balanced.

“I’m very happy. I see a little more confidence in the players,” Lynn said. “We were more patient.”

Luca Cupido, the Italian transfer who has electrified the No. 2-ranked Sailors, had three goals, six steals and played tenacious defense to halt attempts by the Sea Kings to pull within one goal in the final two periods.

But Lynn was happiest with the balance the team showed as Clay Davison had three goals while Mitchell Mendoza and Chad Sheldon had two goals each.

Lynn said the Sailors’ (11-3) progress improved dramatically against Mater Dei in the finals of the South Coast Tournament on Sept. 28. Despite the 16-10 loss, Lynn said it was by far the best the team had played.

“It was a big confidence builder for them to see other players step up,” Lynn said.

The third-year coach pointed to players like junior attacker/driver Davison, who has five goals in his last two games.

Davison said he and others on the squad have learned not to rely so much on Cupido, their leading scorer.

“The first couple of games we played we were relying directly on him and guys on the perimeter wouldn’t play for ourselves,” Davison said.

This year has also been a big transition for Mendoza, a senior who has distinguished himself as one of the team’s leading scorers. With a hoarse voice after the game, Mendoza said he has worked to communicate more with teammates in the pool.

“I’ve improved on being a leader,” Mendoza said. “Junior year it was me and five seniors. I got used to it and liked it. Now I’ve adapted into more of a leadership role and have become more vocal.”

They’ll need to keep improving to avoid a repeat of last year. The Sailors defeated CdM in the Battle of the Bay, went 5-0 in the Sunset League, but lost to the Sea Kings in the CIF quarterfinals. The Sailors do have the added presence of Cupido, but the young players around him are still developing, Lynn said. The games against Mater Dei and CdM have shown huge improvements in their maturity and poise, he said.

“I wish we had eight more months, but we don’t,” Lynn said. “We need to continue to get players to be confident and have an understanding of what his duties are.”

To do that, they’ll dial up the training to continue improving their fundamentals, confidence and efficiency on offense. The Sailors face Los Alamitos on Wednesday in their first league game.

“These guys know we’re going to dial up on training,” Lynn said. “We’re going to have the same practices, but we’re going to be a little more intense. This year has been a good focus year with a lot of young players wanting to do a good job. It has really been a pleasure to work with these guys.”

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